The Path Forward in Challenging Times

Building Resilience through the Practice of Awareness

The Academy for the Love of Learning and The Sky Center are collaborating to offer a day of learning, practice and reflection focused on the power of presence and awareness to build our resilience as we respond to life’s daily challenges. This event is open to all local educators from schools and other service organizations - including teachers, administrators, counselors, social workers and nurses.

Randle Charles, Oneida from Six Nations and Oneida of the Thames, is an artist and a facilitator. Randle facilitates workshops and public programs at the Academy ...

Erin Doerwald, LCSW, CMT-P

Erin Sibley Doerwald is the Program Director of The Sky Center of the New Mexico Suicide Intervention Project and a private practice psychotherapist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Erin offers an experiential and research informed perspective on the connection between self-care, resilience, and suicide. In an effort to provide comprehensive services to enhance the safety and well-being in our community, she co-founded The Sky Center’s Mindful Education Santa Fe Program in 2014, providing support for mindful awareness practices in New Mexico school communities. She received her training in mindfulness facilitation from UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC), a department of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and is an Affiliated UCLA MAPs teacher. She is also currently an Adjunct Professor at the Facundo Valdez School of Social Work for New Mexico Highlands University. In her spare time, you will find her wrangling her two spirited, school-age children and one-year-old Assistance Dog in Training, Otis.

Grietje Laga, Natural Helpers and Education Outreach Coordinator

Grietje Laga works as the Natural Helpers Coordinator for the The Sky Center of the New Mexico Suicide Intervention Project. She is closely engaged with nine different Natural Helpers’ groups, both in Santa Fe and Pecos. She also functions as a facilitator of The Sky Center’s Inner and Outer Life Skills program and provides presentations on a variety of topics. With a Licentiate Degree in Physical Education and a Master’s Degree in Experiential Education, Griet brings inspired, hands-on activities in all of her programming. Her main passion remains the outdoors, where she has spent over 30 years facilitating groups in adventure education and nature connection.